Info zu I Only Have Eyes For You (Remastered)

"I Only Have Eyes for You" is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on May 10, 1976, by Columbia Records and included two new songs, "Yellow Roses on Her Gown" and "Ooh What We Do", which was written specifically for him, as well as a contemporary arrangement of the 1934 title track that foreshadowed his recordings of standards that incorporated a disco beat ("Begin the Beguine", "Night and Day") a few years later.
The album made its first appearance on Billboard magazine's Top LP's & Tapes chart in the issue dated June 26, 1976, and remained there for 15 weeks, peaking at number 79. The following month, on July 3, it made its first appearance on the UK album chart, where it reached number 14 during a 12-week run. On December 1, 1976, the British Phonographic Industry awarded the album with Silver certification for sales of 60,000 units, and Gold certification for 100,000 units followed on April 15, 1977.
"In 1976, the Johnny Mathis/Jack Gold singer/producer team reunited after 1975's stint with producer John Florez for the When Will I See You Again album. It's right back to that familiar and successful groove on I Only Have Eyes for You, with Gene Page arranging and conducting Gold's production work. A movie theme and adult contemporary reworkings continue the song selection from the year before. Where "Mandy" led off the When Will I See You Again LP, it's "I Write the Songs" here, and though he doesn't write them, it's a nice swim through Bruce Johnston's greatest hit. Likewise, "Laughter in the Rain" graced the previous disc, while a wondrous reading of Neil Sedaka's "The Hungry Years" emerges this time around. The real nugget here, though, is a song written by Harriet Schock specifically for Mathis, a tune not on any of her own albums. "Ooh What We Do" is a special moment where Mathis is breathing life into a title untouched by his contemporaries.
Schock gave AMG some insight on how the song came to be: "It was not on any of my albums. I taught it to Johnny in the studio and he really liked it. He was reading the lyric to a friend who was in there with him. He had been an idol of mine when I was a child. 'I drink up your liquid movements like I'm dying of thirst...I could watch you stand forever, but come on over here first...how could we be so together when we're so unrehearsed....' Anyway, Jack Gold of Columbia Records produced it. He had signed me to Columbia before I went to 20th Century Fox, a little-known fact. When the payola scandal hit, a lot of artists got dropped. I was among them. I hadn't even recorded for them yet. This was about 1972...so Jack was very familiar with my work even before 'Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady.' He was a very witty, eloquent man -- Jack Gold. When people would show him songs or acts and he didn't like them, they would occasionally say, 'I'm going to have to go over your head to Clive with this,' to which he would reply, 'Over my head and around my back...the two most traveled paths in America.' I loved him. He died a few years ago. That's my little story about 'Ooh What We Do.' At the end when I have 'hari krishna, amen...,' at one point I had 'oy vey,' but they took that out."
What they didn't take out is a line "both of us slowly stalking each other for so long," which seemed so innocent in 1976. But what the song does uncover is the idea that Mathis could have gotten away with putting a few more top-flight songs on his albums in the '70s. "Ooh What We Do" is an exciting departure from the predictability of Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns," though Mathis just does everything so well, and there is safety in numbers. Billy Sherrill and Charlie Rich's "Every Time You Touch Me (I Get High)" has a dazzling arrangement, and moments like this make the covers worthwhile. Still, the artist got more coverage when he hit number one again with "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" two years after this, 21 years after "Chances Are" first accomplished that feat. "Ooh What We Do" might've fared better had it been the title track rather than the up-tempo, almost disco version of the Flamingos' signature tune. The Las Vegas-style arrangement of the 1959 hit "I Only Have Eyes for You" survives because of Mathis' voice and style, but it is the new song he discovered here that brings magic to this collection." (Joe Viglione, AMG)
Johnny Mathis, vocals
Digitally remastered

Johnny Mathis
Born September 30, 1935 in Gilmer Texas, Johnny Mathis grew up learning songs and dance routines from his father, Clem Mathis, a vaudeville veteran. Moving with his family to San Francisco, Johnny began vocal training at 13, performing work around the teacher's house in exchange for lessons, and got his first band gig singing in a band formed by keyboardist Merl Saunders.
A star high jumper, hurdler and basketball player in high school, Mathis was on-track for the Olympic tryouts when, in September 1955, Columbia Records A&R executive and jazz producer George Avakian flew in to hear Johnny sing during his weekend gig at San Francisco's 440 Club. Mathis's performance that night prompted Avakian to fire off the now-mythic telegram to Columbia Records in New York: "Have found phenomenal 19-year-old boy who could go all the way. Send blank contracts."
The longest-running artist on Columbia Records, who released his debut, Johnny Mathis: A New Sound In Popular Song, in 1956, Johnny Mathis is one of the last, one of the most popular, and ultimately one of the most enduring traditional male vocalists to emerge before rock arrived to dominate the pop charts, Johnny Mathis has recorded more than 110 albums and sold millions and millions of records worldwide since the release of his debut. He has 17 million RIAA certified album and singles sales in the US alone.
A sublime vocalist whose approach to pop music transcends passing fads and trends, Johnny Mathis has performed songs in an incredible variety of styles and categories -- from music composed for stage and film to golden era jazz standards, contemporary pop hits, and holiday music both sacred and secular -- assuring his reputation as one of the most enduring traditional pop vocalists in music history.
Perhaps best-known for his landmark singles (three of his recordings--"Chances Are," "It's Not For Me To Say," and "Misty"--have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame) Mathis was one of the very first musical artists to embrace the album concept and record fully-realized thematically and sonically coherent collections of songs. His 1958 release, Johnny's Greatest Hits inaugurated the ongoing "greatest hits" anthology phenomenon becoming one of the most popular albums of all time after spending an unprecedented 490 continuous weeks (almost ten years) on the BILLBOARD Top Albums Chart. Johnny Mathis was given the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in 2003.
His latest album to be nominated for a Grammy Award is the 2010 release “Let It Be Me – Mathis In Nashville”. For his first full album inspired by the world of country music, Mathis, whose knowledge and love of music crosses all genres, handpicked the songs for Let It Be Me: Mathis In Nashville, songs that moved him personally and came alive under the Mathis touch.
Johnny and Fred Mollin, the album's producer, assembled a group of the finest musicians in Nashville (or anywhere in the world) to record an album intentionally free of modern studio tricks. With the superb recording engineer Khyle Lenning on board to capture the sessions, Johnny recorded these songs live in the studio over the course of a week. Johnny's approach is sympathetic to the original country arrangements, with each musician performing with an extraordinary sensitivity supporting some of the most intimate vocals Mathis has ever recorded.

Johnny Mathis
Born September 30, 1935 in Gilmer Texas, Johnny Mathis grew up learning songs and dance routines from his father, Clem Mathis, a vaudeville veteran. Moving with his family to San Francisco, Johnny began vocal training at 13, performing work around the teacher's house in exchange for lessons, and got his first band gig singing in a band formed by keyboardist Merl Saunders.
A star high jumper, hurdler and basketball player in high school, Mathis was on-track for the Olympic tryouts when, in September 1955, Columbia Records A&R executive and jazz producer George Avakian flew in to hear Johnny sing during his weekend gig at San Francisco's 440 Club. Mathis's performance that night prompted Avakian to fire off the now-mythic telegram to Columbia Records in New York: "Have found phenomenal 19-year-old boy who could go all the way. Send blank contracts."
The longest-running artist on Columbia Records, who released his debut, Johnny Mathis: A New Sound In Popular Song, in 1956, Johnny Mathis is one of the last, one of the most popular, and ultimately one of the most enduring traditional male vocalists to emerge before rock arrived to dominate the pop charts, Johnny Mathis has recorded more than 110 albums and sold millions and millions of records worldwide since the release of his debut. He has 17 million RIAA certified album and singles sales in the US alone.
A sublime vocalist whose approach to pop music transcends passing fads and trends, Johnny Mathis has performed songs in an incredible variety of styles and categories -- from music composed for stage and film to golden era jazz standards, contemporary pop hits, and holiday music both sacred and secular -- assuring his reputation as one of the most enduring traditional pop vocalists in music history.
Perhaps best-known for his landmark singles (three of his recordings--"Chances Are," "It's Not For Me To Say," and "Misty"--have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame) Mathis was one of the very first musical artists to embrace the album concept and record fully-realized thematically and sonically coherent collections of songs. His 1958 release, Johnny's Greatest Hits inaugurated the ongoing "greatest hits" anthology phenomenon becoming one of the most popular albums of all time after spending an unprecedented 490 continuous weeks (almost ten years) on the BILLBOARD Top Albums Chart. Johnny Mathis was given the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in 2003.
His latest album to be nominated for a Grammy Award is the 2010 release “Let It Be Me – Mathis In Nashville”. For his first full album inspired by the world of country music, Mathis, whose knowledge and love of music crosses all genres, handpicked the songs for Let It Be Me: Mathis In Nashville, songs that moved him personally and came alive under the Mathis touch.
Johnny and Fred Mollin, the album's producer, assembled a group of the finest musicians in Nashville (or anywhere in the world) to record an album intentionally free of modern studio tricks. With the superb recording engineer Khyle Lenning on board to capture the sessions, Johnny recorded these songs live in the studio over the course of a week. Johnny's approach is sympathetic to the original country arrangements, with each musician performing with an extraordinary sensitivity supporting some of the most intimate vocals Mathis has ever recorded.